Alex Rodriguez has been banned for 211 games as part of an attempt to clean out performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) from baseball.

Twelve further players have been suspended for 50 games for their part in the Biogenesis scandal, ruled Major League Baseball.

New York Yankee Rodriguez, the highest paid player in baseball, is due to start his ban on Thursday which will cover the rest of this season and all of next, for violations of MLB's joint drug prevention and treatment program and its basic agreement.

In a statement, the league said the 38-year-old was being punished for "his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone and human growth hormone, over the course of multiple years" and for his attempts to cover up those violations and obstruct a league investigation".

MLB added: "Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal, who already have served 50-game suspensions, will not receive additional discipline."

Rodriguez, who had been hoping to make his 2013 season debut after missing four months with injury, vowed to appeal against the suspension. Baseball's drug agreement says the appeal hearing shall start no later than 20 days after the filing of the grievance and the arbitrator is charged with making a decision 25 days after the hearing starts. However, the schedule can be altered by agreement of management and the union.

Cruz attributed his action to a gastrointestinal infection and said he had lost 40 pounds following the 2011 season. "I made an error in judgment that I deeply regret, and I accept full responsibility for that error. I should have handled the situation differently, and my illness was no excuse."

Cruz, who leads Texas in RBIs, and Detroit's Peralta will be eligible to return to their teams for the playoffs.

Ryan Braun's 65-game suspension last month and previous punishments bring to 18 the total number of players disciplined for their relationship to Biogenesis of America, a closed anti-aging clinic in Florida accused of distributing banned performing-enhancing drugs.

The suspensions are thought to be the most at once for off-the-field conduct since 1921, when Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned eight Chicago White Sox players for life for throwing the 1919 World Series against Cincinnati: Shoeless Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsh, Chick Gandil, Fred McMullen, Charles "Swede" Risberg, Buck Weaver and Claude "Lefty" Williams. They had been suspended by the team the previous year and were penalized by baseball even though they had been acquitted of criminal charges.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig said: "Major League Baseball has worked diligently with the Players Association for more than a decade to make our Joint Drug Program the best in all of professional sports. Upon learning that players were linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, we vigorously pursued evidence that linked those individuals to violations of our Program. We conducted a thorough, aggressive investigation guided by facts so that we could justly enforce our rules.

"Despite the challenges this situation has created during a great season on the field, we pursued this matter because it was not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do. For weeks, I have noted the many players throughout the game who have strongly voiced their support on this issue, and I thank them for it."

The Miami New Times broke the Biogenesis story, back in January, claiming it had documents which linked Melky Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Gio Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz to the clinic. Cabrera, in addition two other players alleged to be linked to Biogenesis, Bartolo Colón and Yasmani Grandal, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and served suspensions in 2012.

Those named in the lawsuit included the owner of the clinic, Anthony Bosch, and his partners Carlos Acevedo, Ricardo Martinez, Marcelo Albir and Paulo da Silveira. The lawsuit claimed that Bosch and and those attached to him "actively participated in a scheme … to solicit or induce Major League players to purchase or obtain PES (performing-enhancing substances) for their use in violation of MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program."

With the case, MLB opened up a new front in its war on drugs, in an attempt to bring players to justice by suspending them for a "non-analytical positive" rather than a positive drugs test, as the current collective bargaining agreement allows. To do that, it needed evidence, which is what the lawsuit was all about. The pressure, both financial and judicial, that it placed on Bosch and his associates to give up their clients, allowed baseball to begin to gather information that could not otherwise have been acquired.

From there, MLB began to ratchet up its investigations, turning up "what they believe is evidence" that a representative of Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez purchased medical records, news which surfaced with the season underway in April. Rodriguez's representatives denied that the player had ever tried to buy the documents, saying that the Yankees slugger "doesn't even care" what is in the records. MLB also paid a former Biogenesis employee for documents.

In May, we learned from the New York Daily News that Bosch was under additional pressure - the Florida Department of Health had sent him an unlicensed activity citation on 25 April, accusing him of practicing medicine without a license from 2009 through 2012 and asking him to sign a "cease and desist agreement". However, some relief arrived for Bosch after he agreed to work with MLB investigators in return for removing his name from its lawsuit and assistance with legal fees. MLB's lawsuit against Biogenesis is ongoing, after a motion to dismiss it was denied by a Miami-Dade circuit judge in late July.

A month earlier it was revealed that several weeks of interviews were scheduled between MLB and players with their lawyers, to discuss connections to the closed clinic. The players' union head, Michael Weiner, said: "Every player has been or will be represented by an attorney from the players' association. The players' association has every interest in both defending the rights of players and in defending the integrity of our joint [drug] program. We trust that the commissioner's office shares these interests."

With Braun's case wrapped up, the onus shifted to other players including Alex Rodriguez, who thanks to his 647 career home runs, the money involved with his mega-contract and his status as one of the largest lightning rods to ever play the game, garnered the most attention leading up to the current suspensions.